This essay examines, analyzes and reviews an October 4th, 2011 Distinguished Fellow Lecture by Frances E. Dolan, professor at UC Davis, at the Huntington Library Gardens in Pasadena, CA. The talk was entitled “True Relations and Ridiculous Fictions: Evaluating Stories of Witchcraft in 17th Century England,” Dolan discussed how witchfinders, and other “scholars” of witchcraft in the 17th century distinguished between credible and incredible stories and how today's historians evaluate surviving stories as historical evidence. Her illuminating talk revealed a strange inversion of the popular conception of modernity today. In the 17th century, witches were determined as such by evidentiary reasons, now witches are considered nothing more than fairy tales or affectations of certain social groups, yet for this reason, they are alive in our imaginations today.

This is my submission to the 2012 Gotham Writers’ Workshop Travel Essay Contest, detailing my experience at the 2010 Civilization and Fear international English language academic conference hosted by the University of Silesia in Ustron, Poland.